Bombshell by Catherine Coulter
“So enough. Anna, what do you think of my gorgeous brother?”
Anna cocked her head to one side, looked him over. “This baboon? I’ve got to say I like the guy; it’s probably the Jane Goodall in me. Now I’ve got to get back to work before Maurie comes out here yelling.”
Wolf Trap Road
Maestro, Virginia
Late Sunday
Griffin didn’t call ahead. He was content to wait for Anna in his car a half block from her cottage. He knew she helped close the diner at ten o’clock, Maurie usually trailing along after her with a happy buzz on if the day’s receipts were good.
He watched Anna pull her Kia into her driveway, climb out, and trudge to the cottage’s front door. She looked tired, he thought, one job too many between trudging around with food and worrying about her cover.
Before he raised his hand to knock, the door opened and there stood the DEA agent, her Glock pointed at his chest.
“Griffin! I’m glad it’s you and not some—well, I don’t need this.” She slid her Glock back in her purse, still on her shoulder. “Why are you here? Is Delsey all right? I didn’t see your car.”
“It was parked up the street. Delsey’s asleep. I asked Penny to keep watch. I’d like to talk to you some more, make some plans, if we can.”
Griffin followed her down the hallway to her kitchen. It was like the Julia Child’s Kitchen exhibit at the Smithsonian, with an antique stove that still looked ready to take on a roast, and what looked like an ancient dishwasher, with its door cracked open, ready for business.
He watched her pull down two big mugs from an ugly mud-brown wooden cabinet, and sat down as she made coffee.
“It’s decaf,” she said over her shoulder. “It won’t taste wonderful, but it might fool our brains into stayin’ alert a bit longer. Did Delsey tell you anything else useful?”
He watched her shove her hair behind her ear. “You already know about Mrs. Carlene, don’t you? Tell me about her.”
“She cleared our background check. I’ve met her, of course. She’s originally from Savannah, Georgia, but spent some ten years living in Madrid—her home away from home, I’ve heard her call it—and that’s where she met Salazar. Word is they once had a relationship, remained friends, and never really split up. She’s been schedulin’ his appearances and appointments for years now. Maybe it’s workin’ for Salazar for so long that makes her seem like she’s more involved with this business than she is. We’ll check again.”
Anna gave him a small smile as she poured coffee into his mug. “You like plain black?”
“Yes, thank you.”
He took a sip, watched her take a couple of bagels from the toaster and put them on a plate along with a fresh tub of cream cheese.
“Same bagels from this morning?”
“Yep. Toast them and you never know how ancient they are. Would you like one?”
He shook his head. He watched her smear cream cheese on the bagel. “If it’s not Mrs. Carlene and you don’t suspect Hayman, do you have any ideas who Salazar’s working with—other than the Maras, of course? He’s got to have someone close by. I didn’t see any men at his house at all Saturday morning, and no one but Delsey has seen any gang members that I know of.”
She shook her head, chewed. “I’ve never seen anyone around him I didn’t expect to see, other than his visitors.”
“Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Who does he work with in Madrid?”
“Their police sent us a compete dossier on him. You can borrow it if you like. When he’s in Madrid, he likes to spend most of his time with his mother, Maria Rosa, and her longtime friends, all of them older and male, in her lovely big home on the Paseo del Prado. Mother and son play for each other at a small flamenco club. As you know, she’s quite a classical pianist. Bottom line, we haven’t seen any of his mother’s associates here, only Salazar.”
“Has he visited El Salvador and his Uncle Mercado recently?”
“No. His last visit was when he was in his mid-twenties. Mercado was killed in a firefight with authorities some ten years ago. Another Lozano cousin took his place. How did you meet your boss?”
He smiled at her. “I worked with Savich and Sherlock in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. Did you read about Judge Dredd getting shot?”
“The whole planet has. You were involved with that? You must have really impressed him to ask you to transfer to Washington to work for him after, what, a week of knowin’ you?”
Griffin nodded. “Everything worked out. I’ll tell you though, I had to think long and hard about the transfer. I really like San Francisco, enjoyed my life there. But Savich and his unit are usually in the eye of the storm, and, I gotta admit it, I like the rush, the challenge.”
“The danger, right?”
“Maybe there’s something else—I called lots of people, and all of them told me you can trust Savich; he’s always got your back.”
He began tapping his fingers on the tabletop. “In the morning I’m going to start talking with everyone who was at the party, including everyone from that catering company. No one will wonder why, since everyone knows we’re conducting a murder investigation.”
“If you can, talk to Salazar again. I’d like to know your impressions of where his mind is at now. Again, I think he’s got to be panicked. All of them must be.”
She took the last bite of the bagel, sighed, and sat back in her chair. “I was raised on bagels. My grandma made them for me the first time when I was maybe four years old. ‘Succor for the soul,’ she’d say when she spread cream cheese on one for me.”
“There were bagels in the South when your grandmother was a girl?”
She grinned at him. “I think the first bagel maker arrived in Louisiana with the carpetbaggers after the war. What’s your favorite eat?”
“I’m a guy. Give me burgers and hot dogs and a grill and I’m a happy camper.”
“Where’d you grow up, Griffin?”
“In Colorado, near Aspen. Yes, I’ve skied all my life, competed throughout high school and college.”
“Olympics?”
“Not in this lifetime. I enjoy skiing whenever I have the chance. I don’t guess you’ve ever done much skiing in Louisiana?”
“I always wanted to learn, usually for a solid three months after watchin’ the winter Olympics on TV.” She grinned. “I’m a water skier. Now, that’s fun.”
He took another drink of coffee. It was pretty bad. The night was quiet, the air still and calm. He looked at her, wanted to run his finger over her mouth. He wanted to taste her. But not now, worst luck. He said, “Maybe we could teach each other.”
“Yeah,” she said after a moment, her dark eyes on his face, “maybe we could.”
Bud Bailey’s B&B
Maestro, Virginia
Delsey dreamed she was skydiving into the very heart of Santiago, tourists and natives alike all staring up at her and pointing. She wondered why all the people were pointing at her when she realized she felt the parachute straps digging into her shoulders and her shoulders were bare. Then she noticed she was wearing only knee-high boots, nothing else. The wind danced wildly in her hair, and she was cold, freezing. Suddenly, she felt something coming close and she tried to move out of the way, jerk on the parachute straps, but she couldn’t move. Something cast a shadow over her face and it was coming at her—not making any noise, but she could feel it, and it was a him, and she felt his breath on her cheek. She couldn’t move, couldn’t—
Delsey jerked awake. She stared up into the face of the man she hadn’t until this moment realized she’d seen just before he’d smashed something down against her head. He was straddling her, holding her down, her arms by her sides under the covers, and his hand was over her mouth. He whispered above her mouth, “You bounced right back, didn’t you, pequeña niña? You were lucky, but not tonight. You reco
The glimpse she’d gotten of him—she hadn’t realized he was so very young, and his eyes were dead. She couldn’t move. Griffin was across the living room in the other bedroom, sound asleep. She made a sound in her throat and stared at the glittering silver knife coming down.
Three shots rang out, loud as cannons. The man slammed forward on top of her. She opened her mouth to scream and tasted his blood. His blood was everywhere, hot and sticky, on her face, her neck—”
“Delsey, are you okay?”
It was Griffin.
She was frantic, out of control, but her voice came out in a hoarse whisper. “Get him off me!”
Griffin quickly shoved him off, let him land on the floor on his side, fall slowly onto his back. Griffin switched on the bedside lamp as he sat down to hold her. He saw blood splattered on her face. Then he felt the blast of cold air from the open window.
He dropped Delsey and ran to the window. Delsey was behind him, her blood-splattered nightgown flapping at her ankles.
They looked at a man standing at the base of a tall ladder leaned against the B&B wall in the alley below the window. He stared up at them, and they saw his face clearly. A split second later, the man turned and ran down the alley away from them and disappeared around a corner.
“Give me a second, Delsey, I’ve got to call Dix.” He grabbed her cell out of its charger on the bedside table, since his was in his bedroom.
A moment later, he laid the cell on the bedside table and turned to see Delsey standing in the middle of the small bedroom, blood-spattered, pale as death, trying not to look at the dead man on the floor beside the bed. He shoved the window down.
“You okay?”
“Yes,” but she could hear herself wheezing for breath. “I’m cold, Griffin, I’m so cold I’m going to crack like ice. You’re okay, right?”
“Don’t worry about me.”
“I’ll bet the other man was the second man in my apartment.” She raised shocked eyes to his face. “He was waiting for his partner to kill me and then what? They’d go have a beer?” She knew her voice sounded weak, thin as a thread, but she couldn’t help it. She looked again at the dead man. “He’s so young. Thank you for saving my life, Griffin. How did you know?”
Griffin shrugged. “I guess I woke up and I heard him.”
“But how could you hear him? He was whispering and he had his hand over my mouth so I couldn’t make a sound. I couldn’t scream or anything.”
“Well, whatever, we’re both okay.”
He’d somehow known, and for that, she was more grateful than she’d ever been in her life. She felt a punch of nausea and swallowed convulsively when she looked down at herself. Her old soft-as-butter white granny nightgown wasn’t soft or white now. “May I go take a shower, Griffin?”
“Make it nice and hot, okay?”
She nodded, took one more look at the dead man. “He’s so young, Griffin, maybe not even twenty. The other man, he knows we saw him. He knows.”
“Maybe so, but we don’t have to worry anymore about this one. Go take your shower.”
When he heard the water turn on in the bathroom, he went down on his haunches beside the dead man. He studied his face. Delsey was right, he was so damned young. He’d shot him three times in the chest, center mass. His eyes and his mouth were both open, his mouth in silent surprise. He saw something on the side of his neck. It was a tattoo. He gently turned his head to the side. There in Gothic script were MS and the number 13 right below.
Washington, D.C.
Sunday, midnight
When his cell belted out “Tequila,” Savich was sleeping beside Sherlock, dreaming for some reason about Sister Maria’s song in The Sound of Music, the movie Sean had watched for the umpteenth time before bed. He awoke instantly. “Savich.”
“Savich, Agent Sparks here. Stony Hart’s dead, dammit, and I swear I never saw anyone go in. The girlfriend came running out of the building screaming. I called 911, and Metro is on their way. I calmed her down, took her back upstairs, told her to stay in the kitchen. I looked in the bedroom. It looks like Hart committed suicide.”
“We’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
The early-morning hours in Washington were like an entirely different city for Savich and his Porsche. The only traffic was mostly young professionals trying to get themselves home safely before the workweek started again in a few hours. Moonlight reflected off the white snow and helped light their way. The streets were free of ice, the temperature still hovering above freezing. The heater started to blast out hot air as the engine warmed.
While Savich drove, Sherlock called Agent Sparks to get more details. When she punched off her cell, she said, “Bill said Stony never left his apartment. There was a pizza delivery at eight. Bill checked with the pizza guy, verified he delivered the pizza to Hart’s apartment, said a young woman paid him. Her name’s Janelle Eckles, his girlfriend. She left about nine o’clock, got into a car with two other young women. Bill said Stony’s lights were the last to go off in the building, about eleven. He saw the girlfriend come back before midnight, let herself in. The apartment lights went on, and she came out screaming. No wonder.”
Savich was frowning. “Suicide?”
“I suppose someone could have gotten in through the rear entrance of the building without Bill seeing him, but Bill says we’ll see for ourselves.” Sherlock looked at the GPS, then shot a look at a street sign. “Not much farther. Turn left here on Green Leaf Avenue, Dillon. And I know you’re already blaming yourself, so stop it, or you’re going to piss me off. This is not your fault.”
He looked at her quickly and only shook his head.
“Bill said a Detective Moffett of the WPD just drove up.”
They found themselves in a not-quite-gentrified neighborhood of mid- to low-end apartments that left very few trees to soften the scene. Instead, there were stuffed garbage cans lining the street, and piles of filthy snow packed back against buildings. Four cop cars blocked the street. Officers were already out canvassing the neighborhood wherever they saw a light.
“I hate this,” she said.
Detective Lorenzo Moffett, a fireplug topped with a short halo of hair hugging his head, and eyes that had seen too much, met them at Stony Hart’s apartment door on the second floor, waved them in. “So you’re Agent Savich. There’s a lot of talk at the Daly Building about that poor kid found at the Lincoln Memorial. I’d say this one is a suicide, first glance, but given the circumstances, we’ll see. Hart’s in here.”
“Our forensic team and the FBI ME will be here soon, Detective Moffett,” Sherlock said.
“My Loo’s got no problem with you guys taking over the forensics once he heard it’s connected to Tommy Cronin’s murder. I’ve got officers out speaking to the neighborhood, and I want to be kept in the loop. I’ve got the girlfriend in the kitchen. She was pretty drunk when we got here, since she’d been out partying with girlfriends. She told Agent Sparks she decided to surprise him with a return visit, all unplanned, according to her, and this is what she found. Needless to say, she’s stone-cold sober now. Naturally, she didn’t know about an FBI agent sitting in front of the building. Did Hart know?”
Savich shook his head. “I assigned Agent Sparks to keep watch here.”
Moffett didn’t say a word about that, although they could tell he wanted to. “I ran a check on the girlfriend while I waited for you guys,” Moffett said. “Janelle Eckles is twenty-two; she’s a clerk at State part-time and finishing up her senior year at George Washington, majoring in history. Parents live in Independence, Iowa, work in Cedar Rapids, both engineers in a biotech company.”
As Moffett spoke, he led them into the good-sized
Moffett waved his hand around. “You can see Hart was really into his computers. Agent Sparks told me the FBI hauled away his stuff. I’d like to know what that was about. First let’s see if you agree this is a suicide.”
He ushered them into a long, narrow bedroom that held only a single dresser, a leather chair, and a king-size bed. No computer paraphernalia in here, maybe on orders from his girlfriend, only a big flat-screen TV hung on the wall opposite the bed.
Walter Stony Hart was lying on the bed on his back with his arms at his sides, dressed in old jeans, a blue-and-white Magdalene sweatshirt, and black Nikes on his feet, his arms at his sides. His eyes were open and staring at the ceiling. Beside him on the bedside table stood two empty pill bottles. Savich looked closely at the bottles, saw the prescription labels had been ripped off so no one would know where he’d got them? Or because he didn’t want to be saved if the pills didn’t kill him? Next to the bottle was a piece of white paper.
“Ms. Eckles said she read it,” Moffett said. “She said it was neatly set beneath the bottles.
“We didn’t touch it again,” Moffett said. Sherlock leaned down, read aloud, “I can’t live like this. I’m sorry.” It was signed “Stony Hart.”
Sherlock studied the scene, studied Stony’s face. “Where is the pad this sheet of paper came from?”